Roleyshow

Happy Lensday, kids!   That's right. I said Lensday.  Photography is what we're going to talk about on Wednesdays!   This could be a tip, an opinion, a review if I have something to review, but it's gonna be a talk about photography.   Today though, we're going to talk about how Photography and I got together in the first place.   Now, I need to make it clear that I'm not a pro.  I've been paid for my photography by some very nice people that have asked me to do a couple of things for them, but I'm not a pro in the sense that photography is all I do.  If it were, I'd be a photojournalist and still make no money, but I'd love what I do.Of course, my parents had a Polaroid, but I wasn't allowed to touch it because the film was not cheap back in those days for a One-Step, and you didn't get a lot of it in a package.   My first 'real' film camera was a Pentax that my friend Lawrence lent me for a Photography 101 class I took in school.  It was taught by a guy named Ed Gibbs.  Great guy and he's the guy that origi

Happy Monday, friends, it's Roley, how ya doin', welcome to the show.  Welcome to the First Monday of 2021.  I felt like we all needed to hear that. We're now 2021.   If you hear this, that means you made it.   Maybe we all need an award for making it through 2020, yeah?  The Bluejacket Creative Award for Chronological Perseverance.  It's all yours, kids.  (Note to self, actually make an award for this, maybe?)Of course, there's quite a ways to go before we can look at the nightmare that was 2020 and put it behind us because the things made 2020 the toxic hell stew it was are very much still with us.  For the next couple of weeks, we still have...you know...that guy, we still have a pandemic on our hands, a lot of us still are unemployed or underemployed, and so on.  We're still under a weird next normal that has us staying away from people we love, working from home, and trying to keep to the minimum contact with people outside our bubble.  That said, I'd like to ask you a question that I'd like you to ask y

I have long said that the day I turned 40 was the best day of my life, because my give a crap broke.   And it's true that my give a crap broke that day, and a lot of stuff that I had been just maniacal and neurotic and worried about just literally disappeared overnight.   It was like this huge weight came off me, and I felt amazing, and it absolutely had nothing to do with the tequila.  Incidentally, I discovered I really like a good aged tequila that day as well, but NOT REALLY THE POINT. This summer I turned 50, and while a similar thing did not happen overnight, this was a slow burn of self reflection because it's 2020 and what the hell else is there to do?   After this slow burn of a Summer, I realized a couple things that I think can tie directly in to the creative mindset.  More specifically, they can hinder a creative mindset, and I've let these things affect me over the years.  I suspect you have as well, so I'll share them with you.   The first is that I let Other People's Drama invade my space WAY t

 I think we've built up a little bit of a relationship here, ya think?  Not to the point where I think you can trust me, but enough to know that I'm going to tell you what you need to hear, not necessarily what you want to hear.   I think we've gotten to know each other at least that well.  So, I want to tell you something that some of you need to hear. This is not a competition.  It has never been.  It never will be.  This creative pursuit that we share is not a contest. It's not a zero-sum game where there are winners and losers.  It's just there.  It is what it is, as cliche as that saying has become lately. You're not going to be the next Joe Rogan or Roman Mars.  You're not going to be the next James Patterson or Neil Gaiman.   We're not the next Sue Bryce or Annie Leibowitz or Ansel Adams. We won't be the next Casey Neistat or Peter McKinnon.   As Brother Dave Gardner used to say, "Take that one, friends.  Weigh it."    I know how this goes because I've done it.  We see the one we like, and we want to b

A series of decisions led to this, the strangest of all days.  But, you know what?  In a way, I'm kind of grateful for it.

Matt Labarge returns for our monthly visit, and we discuss Fights in Parliament,  Fall Foliage Destinations in Virginia, Dark Comedies, and Self-Help.  ATT:  No Poddlement next week.   Two reasons:  I'm attending Adobe MAX next week, and I've strained my voice somehow and I need to rest my voice.   All my closest friends' prayers have finally been answered, I have to be quiet for a week or so.   See you Tuesday after next. LINKSThe Caning of Charles SumnerFistfights in parliament.   Triadic Logic Kris' TikTok. (You have my condolences.). Upsahl: People I Don't Like. https://youtu.be/GYLcu5tFjUUMcAfee's Nob High Bridge Trail State Park Burke's Garden Creative Zen Micro WinAMP Burn Notice Gilbert GottfriedBobcat GoldthwaitDanny DeVito 10 Best Dark Comedies According to iMDB Voyagers (ABC) Pilot Episode The Librarians (Trailer) Roley Episode 60:  The Unhelper   (re: self-help books)Tim Minchin - Storm Devil's Dictionary - Ambrose Bierce 

Last Saturday, I had the second in my series of talks with Matt Labarge.  He's going to be a recurring guest on this podcast for a few reasons, not the least of which is he's a fun guy to talk with.  During our conversation, I mentioned a character from my old podcast named Oliver Townes.  Oliver came about because of the explosion of self-help and productivity books that has happened in recent years.  For my part, I read all the books in this genre that I could for almost two years to research this character.  And while there are a lot of cruel jokes and roasts I could make about all of those so-called experts, that's not what this podcast is about.  This podcast is about getting you set towards True North from a creative standpoint with the knowledge and wisdom that comes from practice, not theory.  So, I have something to say about "Productivity."As the saying goes, I don't know who needs to hear this, but the root word of productivity is PRODUCE.   I KNOW, RIGHT?   I mean, this shouldn't be rocket science

Before we get started, I want to make it absolutely clear that when you're starting out, your audience is going to forgive your audio quality is not exactly up to par if your message is on point.  That said, as you start to get serious about podcasting, you're going to want to work on your craft.  In this case, it means getting into some post-production to mitigate any of the backgrounders noise, removing filler words, and improving the sound of your voice.  I'm going to go through the steps I am currently using to tweak my voice in Adobe Audition.  In my workflow, there are four steps.  First, I equalize the sound.  I do this by going to the Effects Menu, then Filter and EQ, then select the Parametric Equalizer.  I use the Loudness Maximizer from the Presets menu and I make no changes, just click Apply.  Next, we need to normalize the sound.  Go back to the effects menu, select Amplitude and Compression, and select Normalize (process).   Place a check in the box for Normalize to, and select the radio button

Danny Valentini, better known on the web as RazorFox, is an award-winning artist and the creative mind behind "The Draconia Chronicles," a long-running webcomic following the lives of soldiers and civilians on both sides of a war between anthropomorphic Tigers and Dragons.  He dabbles in voice acting in his spare time, and he loves hitting the highways for a good road trip a couple of times a year! LINKSHenry Del Toro Memorial Videoshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6wec3tYeXI&t=101shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJP2wxcja1Qhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTuNOrifbIE AT&T Monopolyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_AT%26T#Monopoly Sports Illustrated Sneakerphonehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZfbN02_9Jw Mazinger Z Introhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyRoF689VRE Raideen Introhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SloHs5O4S48 Dirty Pair Introhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6gyzMHelwE The Impact of Akira: The Film that Changed Everythinghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqVoEpRIaKg DANNYDraconia Chronicle

So, I want to share with you how my brain gets ahead of me sometimes because I think I caught myself before it was too late.  That said, I would love to know what you think.   Here goes.When it comes to podcasting, when it comes to most of my plans for world domination to be honest with you, I'm a mad scientist who sees a little bit of success and then starts adding bits and pieces to his monster until it's unrecognizable, or it's not sustainable.   You've seen this podcast go through a lot of changes over the years,   and one of the main reasons for that is I see this podcast as a reflection of where I am at a certain period of my life.  There have been the funny voices, there's been the point where I felt I wanted to document certain parts of my life as a testimonial to my kids, there's been the kind of mourning process when my parents died.   Presently, this podcast is dedicated to the creative.  How we're coping during this pandemic, to our individual processes, and the myriad ways we express ourselves.  

In the last episode of the poddlement, my interview with Anna Tozzi - Barbay, she mentioned that her son had decided he wanted to be a filmmaker like she is.  I found that fascinating, and I said that I have always wondered what it would be like to see the world from the POV of an autistic person.   As the father of autistic children, I can see what it's like to BE an autistic person, but when you stop to realize that they see and perceive the world very differently than we do...and that's where I stopped.  The fact is, we all see and perceive the world differently, don't we?  It doesn't matter if we have special needs or not, we all have in us different ingredients, and it's these ingredients that inform the way each of us sees the world.  So, when we see someone make a film, or hear a podcast or a song, or see a photograph, we are seeing an example of how that artist perceives the world around them.   This is a person's creative voice, and I use that term to differentiate it from a creative style.   Style i

Born and raised in the shadow of D/FW Airport in Texas, Anna has been living in Virginia with her husband and two kids (and a plethora of pets) for the past ten years. Although she holds a master's degree in criminal justice, Anna found her true calling on stage when she began performing improv and sketch comedy in 2011. A Meisner-trained actress, Anna has been following her dream of becoming a filmmaker for the past few years. She's currently a member of Maverick Murder Mystery, where she's been a character actress for three years. When not writing scripts, working on her next big idea, or forcing her family to work on one of her short films, Anna is probably binging horror films or playing Dungeons & Dragons with her husband and friends, online, thanks to COVID.LINKS:Anna on Twitter Anna on IGAndy Narwhal Productions on IGAndy Narwhal on YouTubeHunter House Victorian Museum

Try as I might, I couldn't get the words to come out of my brain and through my fingertips onto the page.  In this episode, the words come from somewhere else. Like many of you, I sat down to watch the Presidential Debate on Tuesday.  Now, I don't know about you, but the first debate I remember was memorable because the two candidates on stage said literally nothing for half an hour.  It was the first debate between Ford and Carter on September 23, 1976.  The sound had gone out, and the two candidates just stood there at the podiums for 30 minutes waiting for the problem to be fixed.  I don't remember much about that debate other than that, because let's face it, I was six years old.   However, I can tell you beyond the shadow of a doubt that in all the years I have watched debates, that was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen happen...until Tuesday night. 

Part of this series of conversations I've been releasing in my podcast, as well as the regular weekday episodes have been about how we're doing right now during this time.  A career in the creative field right now is tenuous it seems, freelancing even more so.Another reason for this series is meant to be for those of us who are really starting out or don't have an idea of what to do, or people like me who have come to it later in life. We're beginners.  We need direction.  We need encouragement.  We need solidarity.  This is something that's been stuck in my head in one form or another for a little while, and there's a little bit of a thread here so I hope you'll bear with me.  Years ago I did a limited Run Podcast called The Peaceful Pirate, which led to a kind of manifesto, I guess you could call it.  The gist of it was that you didn't have to participate in the game everyone else is playing.  You can opt out.  You can try to live live on your own terms, doing what you love to do.  For the most part, that's

In this episode, I talk to John Roberts about live theater, toxic social media, politics, and how we're handling all of that, because of the coronavirus.LINKS:The Shure Super 55Audio Proscenium - TwitterAudio Proscenium - YouTube   

Today, I want to talk about freelancing.   Not any particular line of work but the subject in general.  Freelancing has enjoyed something of an uptrend lately; Lots of people were doing it before of course, but I suspect there are a lot more people doing it right now, partly out of necessity.   For some, it may be how food gets on the table.    I've been fortunate to get a few gigs here and there, and things are working out.   Did I wish I had a steady gig?  Yeah.  Do I wish I had, oh, I dunno, something with benefits?   DUH.   Am I just a little bit nervous that the Apocalypse is going to happen in a couple of weeks and it's all going to hit the fan?  OH YEAH, TRUST.   But right now is right now, and that's what I need to keep a focus on.    I hit the job boards every day and fill out a gang of applications, and then I hit Upwork and submit some proposals.   Upwork, for the uninitiated, is a freelance job board where people post what they need, and you can submit a proposal to fill that job.   If they select

A question that is weighing on my mind lately is how much structure helps or hurts a creative.   I was talking with a friend who by all accounts has mad organizational skills, and she runs a filmmaking business.  There's a lot of structure in her day that is taken up doing the administrative work that you need to do in order to run a business the right way, and she's very good at that.  However, she tells me that she spends so much time doing the admin work and the proposal writing for grants and things, she laments not being able to spend the time actually creating as she would like.  For purposes of comparison, I don't have a licensed business, what I do is what I call a hobby on steroids.  It could be a business.  But I spend so much time in the creative side, I don't spend any time in the promotion side or administrative side.  SO, I wold be a polar opposite to my friend, as you can hear.  I'm sure that there's a third person out there that promotes like the dickens, but doesn't have anything created, and

In the first of what I hope will be a recurring conversation, our resident philosopher Matt Labarge stops in for a wide-ranging discussion of topics including stoicism, social media, and alcohol.Matt Labarge is a man lost in his own mind trying to navigate the world.  He does not recommend following in his footsteps, but if you do cross paths, he enjoys sharing stories, and a drink if you're up for it.

I want to start this by suggesting each of us ask ourselves a question:   Am I OK?   I know that might sound simple and you might think that's ridiculous, but I'm dead serious.  I want you to ask yourself if you're OK, and I want you to be honest with yourself about the answer.   The reason I'm talking about this is pretty straightforward, I have had to ask myself this same question and my answer "I'm not sure".   I'm not OK, but I'm not in Dire Straits or anything like that.  I can only describe myself in being in some weird limbo state that allows some things to pass, and other things stick and drag me down a little bit for a little while.   I don't know if anyone can relate to this, maybe you can.   It wouldn't be the first time I've lost my audience by talking gibberish, and it certainly won't be the last.   Basically, I've spent the great majority of my time in the company of my family, or outdoors far away from everyone else.  The main human contact I've had is with people that share my last name.   I h

Over this summer I've been trying to build up some content on the site and let people I know I'm open for business.   I say I've been trying.  I'm sure you well know that you can have good intentions to get things done and you get a good start, but then you poke your head out of your creative cubby hole and notice that there's housework that needs to be done, and there's errands to run, and then someone needs you to do something else, and so on.  So you do all of that and get back to the cubby hole only to find it's 9pm, and you wonder how in the hell did all that time get sucked away from you?   So you wind down and try to get a good night's sleep so you can get a good start again tomorrow, and you know what happens.   Rinse, Lather, Repeat.  If you're a creative that wants to go pro, the outside world trying to barge in is a real problem because your family members and friends may not realize that this is your job now, and it's also possible that you may not realize this is your job now.  It's also possible